In the round robin portion of the tournament, the red group will start play today, with the purple group taking the court tomorrow. The red group includes four players whose 2019 highlights all took place in the first half of the year: French Open champion Ash Barty, Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka, Australian Open finalist Petra Kvitova, and Dubai champion Belinda Bencic. Barty is a heavy favorite to end the year as the world No.1, as she leads No.2 Karolina Pliskova by over 1,000 points. With over $14M US dollars on the line over the next eight days, who will win the final WTA event of 2019?
Naomi Osaka (3) vs. Petra Kvitova (6)
The tournament begins with a rematch of the 2019 Australian Open final. All the way back in January, Osaka claimed her second consecutive Major by overcoming Kvitova in a stellar match. That important contest is their only previous meeting. Naomi is certainly the player who arrives in Shenzhen with more confidence. She’s on a 10-match win streak in Asia, with titles in both Osaka and Beijing last month. In Beijing, she became the first player in over six months to defeat Bianca Andreescu in a completed match. She also went on to take out Ash Barty in the final. While Kvitova was the champion of this event eight years ago, she hasn’t won a title or even reached a final of any tournament since April. It’s the second season in a row where she peaked early in the year, and struggled in the second half. Based on current form, as well as their history, Osaka is the favorite to start this event with a win.
Ash Barty (1) vs. Belinda Bencic (7)
This is the WTA Finals debut for both of these competitors. What a year it’s been for the Australian, with 52 match wins to date and three titles, including her first Major singles title. She’s consistently performed well throughout the year, and on all surfaces. As mentioned before, she was a finalist last month in Beijing, her last tournament prior to this event. Bencic meanwhile moved into qualifying position for this event just a week ago, thanks to her title run in Moscow. This will be their first career meeting, which shouldn’t be too surprising considering how much time these two young stars have spent off the tennis court in recent years. Barty of course left the tennis world and played cricket back in Australia, while Bencic’s career was sidelined by injuries after her breakthrough several years ago. With no history between these two, and this being their first WTA Finals, it’s hard to forecast the outcome. Both arrive with plenty of momentum, but I’ll give the slight edge to the world No.1. Her all-court game may prove challenging for Bencic, who is often in less control of her emotions than the steady Barty.
ORDER OF PLAY
Not before 4:30 p.m local time
[3] Naomi OSAKA (JPN) vs. [6] Petra KVITOVA (CZE)
[1] Ashleigh BARTY (AUS) vs. [7] Belinda BENCIC (SUI)
[2] HSIEH Su-Wei (TPE) / Barbora STRYCOVA (CZE) vs. [7] Samantha STOSUR (AUS) / ZHANG Shuai (CHN)
[4] Gabriela DABROWSKI (CAN) / XU Yifan (CHN) vs. [6] Barbora KREJCIKOVA (CZE) / Katerina SINIAKOVA (CZE)
